Virginia put a little bit of a scare into top-seeded Duke, but in the end the Blue Devils are headed into a semi-final devoid of either the #2, #3, #4, #5 or #6 seeded team.

In a day of upsets, Duke was the only higher seed that managed to win leaving the tally for wins by higher seeded teams at an amazingly low three (Duke twice, and Georgia Tech beating North Carolina) for the first two days of the tournament.

Jon “Crazy Face” Scheyer scored seven of his 15 points during the decisive run that helped the top-seeded Blue Devils pull away in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament.

Kyle Singler had 18 points and 11 rebounds and Nolan Smith also had 15 points while Scheyer, the third member of Duke's "Big Three," keyed the 11-0 run that sent them into Saturday's semifinal against Miami.

The performances of Singler and Scheyer virtually assured the two Blue Devils staring spots on the coveted ACC Tournament All-Mouth Wide Open Team.

Jeff Jones had 15 points and Mike Scott added 14 points and 11 rebounds for the ninth-seeded Cavaliers (15-16). They got as close as 46-44 in the final 7 minutes, but went scoreless for nearly 6 minutes and were denied their first semifinal berth since 1995.

MIAMI 70,VIRGINIA TECH 65 – With freshman Durand Scott unstoppable in the final minutes while the ACC's top scorer couldn't hit a shot, Miami knocked off the Hokies, marking the fourth time in the first six games the higher seed lost.

The Hurricanes (20-12), who had dropped 11 of 14 games before arriving here, joined the 2006 Wake Forest team as the only 12th-seed to reach the semifinals. They'll face top-seed and No. 4 Duke on Saturday.

Scott scored 11 of his 17 points in the final 6 minutes and DeQuan Jones added 14 points for the Hurricanes, who beat fifth-seed Wake Forest a day earlier. The Hurricanes had never won two games in their previous five ACC tournaments.

"For us to play in the NCAA tournament, we've got to win the tournament," Miami coach Frank Haith said. "We're driven by that. If that gives us an extra incentive to do the little things we've talked about all year, I don't know. If it is, then let's keep doing it."

Fourth-seed Virginia Tech (23-8) got 18 points from Jeff Allen, but couldn't overcome a miserable performance by ACC top scorer Malcolm Delaney. He was held to seven points on 3 of 15 shooting, including 0 of 8 from 3-point range.

Maurice Miller added 13 points for the seventh-seeded Yellow Jackets (21-11). They blew most of a 19-point lead and had 25 turnovers, but for the second straight night, they did just enough to advance - this time, to the semifinals for the first time since 2005.

Greivis Vasquez had 17 points on 6 of 21 shooting for the second-seeded seed Terrapins (23-8). They had the ball and were within one possession of the lead six times in the final 4:30 and didn't score on any of those possessions.

The last chance came when Maryland trailed 67-64 and Vasquez pulled up for a long 3-pointer with about 6 seconds left. Shumpert knocked the ball from his hands, took off downcourt and was fouled. He and Derrick Favors each hit one free throw in the final 3.7 seconds to seal the Yellow Jackets' first victory in the series since 2004.

Favors finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds and Zachery Peacock added 11 points for the Yellow Jackets, who sent an already jumbled ACC bracket into further disarray. Entering Friday night's finale between North Carolina State and No. 3 seed Florida State, four of the top six seeds failed to make it out of the quarterfinals.

Landon Milbourne had 15 points and Eric Hayes added 14 for Maryland. The ACC's hottest team and its regular-season co-champion nearly staged one of the biggest second-half rallies in the storied history of its league tournament, but ultimately had its seven-game winning streak snapped.

Gani Lawal finished with 11 rebounds for Georgia Tech, which held a 38-30 rebounding advantage and shot nearly 56 percent for the game to Maryland's 37 percent - but the Terrapins did attempt 24 more shots than did the Yellow Jackets.

N.C. STATE 58,FLORIDA STATE 52 – Freshman Scott Wood (#15) scored 18 points on six 3-pointers to help North Carolina State beat Florida State in what has to be seen as yet another improbable tournament run for Sid Lowe & Co. .

Tracy Smith added 13 points for the 11th-seeded Wolfpack (19-14), including a critical jumper to beat the shot clock with about a minute left that helped protect a slim lead. It was the second upset in as many nights for N.C. State, which has won five of six games and is back in the semifinals for the first time since its unexpected run to the finals three years ago.

N.C. State next faces seventh-seeded Georgia Tech.

Solomon Alabi scored 13 points for the third-seeded Seminoles (22-9), who never quite recovered after falling behind by nine midway through the second half.

Virginia senior forward/center Jerome Meyinsse has been named the recipient of the 2010 “Skip” Prosser Award, emblematic of the top scholar-athlete in men’s basketball.

Wake Forest head basketball coach George Edward “Skip” Prosser passed away on July 26, 2007. Prosser compiled a 291-146 career record in 14 seasons as a head coach, including a 126-68 mark in his six years with the Demon Deacons. The 2003 ACC Coach of the Year, Prosser won 20 plus games and led Wake Forest to the NCAA Tournament in each of his first four seasons in Winston-Salem and brought the school its first outright ACC regular season title in 2003. Every Wake Forest senior he coached graduated and the Deacons placed nine players on the annual All-ACC Academic Basketball Team during his tenure.

In order to be nominated for the award, a student-athlete must be an upperclassman with a grade-point average of 3.0 or better – both in his career and in the previous two semesters. Sixty percent of the award is based on academic achievement and 40 percent on athletic accomplishments.

In addition to being a three-time honoree to the All-ACC Academic Basketball team and ACC Academic Honor Roll, Meyinsse is also a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and the Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society. The President of Virginia’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee in 2009-10, Meyinsse was named as one of the team’s tri-captains for the 2009-10 season. A Student-Athlete Mentor at Virginia the past four years and an economics major, Meyinsse is also one of 36 ACC Student-Athletes to earn the league’s prestigious Weaver-James-Corrigan Scholarship.

One of the most improved players in the ACC this season, Meyinsse is currently averaging a career-high 6.3 points and 4.1 rebounds. The Baton Rouge, La., native has started 21 of the Cavaliers’ 29 games this season and leads the team in field goal percentage (.602) and blocked shots (20).

REALLY? Tre'Von Willis #33 of the UNLV Rebels talks to an official after he was called for a foul during a semifinal game against the Brigham Young University Cougars at the Conoco Mountain West Conference Basketball tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center March 12, 2010 in Las Vegas.

We’re guessing they weren’t discussing the vagaries of body art in spite of Tre’Von’s obvious expertise.

PROPHETIC. The Duke Blue Devil appears during a game against the University of Virginia Cavaliers in their quarterfinal game in the 2010 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum on March 12, 2010 in Greensboro, North Carolina.

N.C. STATE 59,CLEMSON 57 – Oliver Purnell must be exasperated with North Carolina on one hand and delighted on the other.

The Tigers haven’t won in Chapel Hill since the Titantic sunk, but this year when they would have been a lock to break the drought, their one game against the Heels was in Littlejohn. On the other hand, the “man bites dog” story of UNC’s dreadful season has steered much media attention away from what has to be considered a terribly disappointing season for Clemson. Yesterday’s loss made that painfully obvious.

That said, last night, a different North Carolina team was Purnell & Co.'s undoing.

N.C. State’s Tracy Smith had 19 points and eight rebounds in what many saw as an improbable first round win.

Ending a day of upsets, the 11th-seeded Wolfpack (18-14) built a double-digit lead early in the second half and withstood a late rally to continue their surprising late-season surge. NC State, which has won four of five, will face third-seeded Florida State on Friday in the quarterfinals.

The sixth-seeded Tigers (21-10) got 17 points and eight rebounds from Trevor Booker, but he got little help. Clemson shot 39 percent from the field, 56 percent from the foul line and committed 15 turnovers in the early exit.

GEORGIA TECH 62,NORTH CAROLINA 52 – If you think back, you can remember when UNC averaged 89 points a game. It wasn’t that long ago, yet it seems like an eternity.

Last night the woeful Heels managed 34 points in the first half and a ten point lead going into the locker room. They followed that up with a 30% second half shooting effort (including 11% from behind the arc) while scoring a mere 24 points. (A far cry from last year when, to site one example, the Ol’ Roy’s boys hung up 60 points on the Terps in the FIRST HALF!).

As we like to say here at T.A.H.: Game over.

Carolina’s follies prevented the lower-seeded teams from sweeping all the first round games in Greensboro.

Derrick Favors had 18 points and nine rebounds and Gani Lawal added 12 points for the seventh-seeded Yellow Jackets (20-11), who had to fight the entire way to earn a needed victory for their shaky NCAA tournament chances.

Georgia Tech trailed by 13 points in the first half against a team it had swept during the regular season, but rallied early in the second half to tie the game before finally pushing ahead in the final 4 minutes while Carolina was again mired in yet another scoring drought.

Favors had a huge game, hitting his first seven shots while coming up with a key block of Tyler Zeller's lay-up attempt to tie it with about 2 minutes left.

Zeller had 17 points and 10 rebounds to lead the 10th-seeded Tar Heels (16-16), who lost their tournament opener for the first time since falling to Georgia Tech in the 2004 quarterfinals.

Johnson was perfect – literally. He was 8-for-8 from the field and 6-for-6 from the line while James Dews added 15 points for the Hurricanes (19-12) who were sporting their special Halloween uniforms.

They led by 25, shot nearly 52 percent against one of the league's toughest defenses and made a huge early run stand in advancing to Friday's quarterfinal matchup against fourth-seeded Virginia Tech.

Ishmael Smith had 14 points to lead the Demon Deacons (19-10).

They didn't get closer than 16 in the second half in falling to 0-3 in ACC tournament games under coach Dino Gaudio. They've lost five of six, and that can't help but damage their seeding - if not drop them onto the NCAA tournament bubble - when Selection Sunday rolls around.

There are probably more than a few folks wondering why the Miami Hurricanes are still floundering around at the sport of basketball? Why, you might ask, can’t they create a program that flirts with the success of the famous (granted, at times, infamous) football program?

Well like other schools in the Sunshine State that we won't name here (Florida and Florida State), evidently, it's a matter of priorities…

Clearly, football is the top priority as evidenced by the placement of the story about this incredibly important scrimmage that pitted the football juggernaut Miami Hurricanes against another football juggernaut...wait for it...the Miami Hurricanes!

To that end, a picture really is worth a thousand words.

This is the front page of the UM section of the Miami Herald's web page today after Miami upset Wake Forest in the opening round of the ACC Tournament - an event some folks (apparently not in South Florida) think is somewhat important…

Yesterday, coaches and players across the country were entered in a little competition requiring them to imitate Roy Williams' reaction to this season as his Tar Heels have tumbled from NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball National Champions to potential N.I.T. participant…

The prez’s borther-in-law Craig Robinson, the coach of Oregon State, does the classic Homer Simpson "Doh!" and head slap combo… Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim does a nice job of looking exasperated…Lance Stephenson #33 of the Cincinnati Bearcats simply wants to scream or cry or both…The runner-up was LaceDarius Dunn #24 of the Baylor Bears who was representing Ol’ Roy and Dexter Pittman #34 of the Texas Longhorns who was representing everybody who beat the Heels (and some that beat them twice.)And the winner is…

John Thompson III of Georgetown who got the Homer Simpson “Doh!” combined with the patented “hide face” move.

Nice, JT3, NICE!

Congrats to all the participants and winners.

(Editor's Note: Props to T.A.H. Pop Culture Editor and hard-core Tar Hell fan Young A.T. for giving us the idea for this story. Thanks, babe!)

AHHH...SO THE MADNESS BEGINS. Da'Sean Butler #1 of the West Virginia Mountaineers shoots a game-winning three pointer at the buzzer to defeat the Cincinnati Bearcats during the quarterfinal of the 2010 NCAA Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 11, 2010 in New York City.

Here, Butler #1 celebrates with teammates Wellington Smith #35, Devin Ebanks #3 and Kevin Jones #5 after making a game winning three pointer,

Conversely, Cashmere Wright of the Cincinnati Bearcats isn’t so pleased.

Benimon, a 6’7” 240 lbs. freshman, hails from Warrenton, VA – yep, the home of T.A.H. Worldwide Media. Truth be told the editor played high school basketball with one of his relatives - Ernest Benimon. We haven’t figured it out what relation our guy is to this guy, but Ernest might have been Jerrelle’s uncle or maybe, dare we say, his grandfather…yike.

(Editor's Note: On a related subject, you may see the T.A.H. Editor/Publisher roaming around Warrenton today sporting a bright orange University of Virginia ball cap. Do not be alarmed. This is not inspired by a sudden change of loyalties. Let's face it, all the beleagured Carolina fans have left is to root for "whomever is playing Duke." Go Wahoos, go!)

Thursday, March 11, 2010

T.A.H. has it straight from an unreliable source that immediately following the Miami v. Wake Forest game (which is ongoing at this time), ACC officials plan to call off the balance of the 2010 ACC Tournament in Greensboro.

Those same unreliable sources tell us that Virginia, which earlier today ended an ugly nine-game skid without the benefit of their leading scorer, will be named the winner of the tournament thus earning the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament which begins next Thursday.

“Look, there’s no other way the Hoos can win the damn tournament,” ACC Commissioner John Swofford is rumored to have said. “If we give the title to the Cavs that virtually guarantees North Carolina a spot in the N.I.T. and everybody's happy. Well...happy enough.”

Virginia has only won the ACC tournament once - back in 1976. Wally Walker was the tournament MVP.

Without leading scorer Sylven Landesberg who was suspended for academic reasons, Virginia found a way to end its nine-game losing streak by knocking off Boston College 68-62 in the first round of the ACC Tournament.

Sammy Zeglinski led the Cavs, scoring 16 of his season-high 21 points in the first half.

Mike Scott had 11 points and 13 rebounds for the ninth-seeded Cavaliers (15-15), who won their first game in a month and their first tournament game in four years. Virginia hadn’t won a tournament game since beating Virginia Tech in the first round of the 2006 tournament in Greensboro.

Now the Cavaliers and first-year coach Tony Bennett are headed to Friday’s quarterfinals to face fourth-ranked Duke, the tournament’s top seed.

Rakim Sanders tied a season-high with 22 points for the eighth-seeded Eagles (15-16).

While the mainstream media and many fans thought the North Carolina Tar Heels had reloaded following their winning the 2009 NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball national Championship and were headed toward another 20-win season and the NCAA tournament, at least one veteran player and a bunch of guys in Tennessee knew better.

The story goes like this: Ol’ Roy spirited the boys quietly down to Vanderbilt for a little scrimmage. The Commodores promptly routed the young and talented Heels by some 30 points.

"That scrimmage was terrible," Marcus Ginyard said. "That was the whole season right there in that scrimmage. It was exactly the way this whole year has gone down. We were playing a good team and we weren't ready to play when we got there. We got our butt kicked the very first time we stepped on the court together."

The comments were made during a pre-ACC press conference when Ginyard surprised the assembled media with his simple answer to this question:

Reporter: Was there any indication early on that the defending national champions, with one of the top recruiting classes in the country coming into a program that had two titles and three Final Fours in five seasons, would have such a crappy season?

Ginyard: “Yes.”

In short, according to Greensboro News-Record’s Ed Hardin, “Ginyard said they knew it from the very beginning, the scars that would never heal, the players that would never come together, the instructions that would be hammered into their heads over and over again that would go unheeded.”

All of you loyal readers know that Today’sACCHeadlines.com, the blog of record for major ACC sports, has ridiculously high journalistic standards. We don’t get bogged down in recruiting information or various rumors about players or coaches.

You will note also that, in the tradition of first-class journalism, we haven’t burdened you with story after story about the demise of the 2009 NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball National Champion University of North Carolina Tar Heels’ demise. Even though it is a “man bites dog” story, and worthy of some attention, it’s not what we do.

Most of the time…

However, since sources close to T.A.H. and the UNC basketball program have sent us some juicy rumors, we feel compelled to share.

Here’s the dish, and, remember, you heard it here first.

Roy Williams in frustrated, very frustrated, so don’t be surprised if the current roster shrinks beyond the graduation of Ginyard and Thompson.

Here’s the rumored prediction of events:

Ed Davis will go to the NBA. Going after his truncated injury-ended season will cost him a bunch of money, but if he was part of the problem nobody will stop him.. He can’t possibly be seen as a first round choice as he was last year when he was a shining star sub playing with four future NBA teammates.

Larry Drew II will transfer. Drew has publicly denied this on more than one occasion. Some Tar Heel fans have been absurdly critical of Drew. Expecting the sophomore with limited experience to fill the now NBA-sized shoes of former standout point guards Ty Lawson and Raymond Felton is totally unfair. Having said that, he still throws some horrific passes for no discernible reasons.

Justin Watts will transfer. Apparently the sophomore is unhappy about something. We don’t know what that is, but we’ll guess playing time is the issue.

Will Graves will do something. There seems to be some speculation about Graves, but we can’t figure out what it is – how many cheeseburgers he eats a week? Although he has had some personality clashes with his coaches in the past, Ol’ Roy calls Graves his “smartest player.” We wager he’s back and playing a big role in that Danny Green three-point shooter kind of way.

Dexter Strickland is rumored to have some academic problems and David Wear is injured – not sure yet how seriously.

"I'm looking forward to taking a longer look at the letter. I sure do think that Congress has more important things to do, with all the issues facing our country. The BCS is fair. Access is fair. Revenue is distributed fairly.”

– BCS executive director Bill Hancock regarding a question-filled letter recently sent to him by two U.S. Senators.

According to some urologists sharing their wisdom in the American Medical News, the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament is an ideal time to undergo a vasectomy.

Noting that many men may delay or avoid a planned-for vasectomy—but will make time to watch hours of “March Madness”—urology practices are advertising the NCAA tournament as a “perfect time” to undergo and subsequently recuperate from the procedure.

The campaigns are unique and varied ranging from advertisements on sports radio shows and promotions on urinals at stadiums, to offers for an NCAA-themed “survival kit,” which includes coupons for pizza delivery, a sports magazine and a bag of frozen peas to alleviate pain after surgery.

These directed advertising campaigns have proven successful at some practices, including the Urology Team in Austin, Texas, whose campaign led to a 40% increase in vasectomy procedures during tournament week last year. The practice has since extended the tournament promotion to all three of its offices.

Although some patients will continue to schedule procedures around their job and other commitments, the tactic of tying vasectomies with basketball will likely expand in the future, a physician at Chesapeake Urology Associates in Baltimore said.

This item comes to us via www.nomas-nyc.com courtesy of a loyal reader, and it goes like this:

In celebration of the greatest athletic achievement by a man on a psychedelic journey, No Mas and artist James Blagden proudly present the animated tale of Dock Ellis' legendary LSD no-hitter. In the past few years we’ve heard all too much about performance enhancing drugs from greenies to tetrahydrogestrinone, and not enough about performance inhibiting drugs.

If our evaluation of the records of athletes like Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Marion Jones, and Barry Bonds needs to be revised downwards with an asterisk, we submit that that Dock Ellis record deserves a giant exclamation point. Of the 263 no-hitters ever thrown in the Big Leagues, we can only guess how many were aided by steroids, but we can say without question that only one was ever thrown on acid.

Sadly, the great Dock Ellis died last December at 63. A year before, radio producers Donnell Alexander and Neille Ilel, had recorded an interview with Ellis in which the former Pirate right hander gave a moment by moment account of June 12, 1970, the day he no-hit the San Diego Padres.

Alexander and Ilels original four minute piece appeared March 29, 2008 on NPRs Weekend America. When we stumbled across that piece this past June, Blagden and Isenberg were inspired to create a short animated film around the original audio.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Adding insult to a season of injury, for first time since the ACC was formed in 1954, North Carolina (16-15, 5-11 ACC) does not have a single player on the All-ACC team.

The league had first- and second-team All-ACC selections from 1954-89 and added a third team beginning in 1990. The closest UNC previously had come to not making the cut was in 2002, when it finished 8-20 and Jason Capel was the last player chosen on the third team. In 2003, freshman Raymond Felton was the second-to-last player chosen on the third team.Miami was also shut out.

Tar Heels sophomore forward Ed Davis, who broke his left wrist halfway through the conference season, was the closest to making the grade – he earned 17 points, placing him 18th among the 29 players who got votes from the ACC media. Senior Deon Thompson, the team’s leading scorer, earned six points total.

In a genius marketing move by E*Trade’s add agency, the company’s Super Bowl commercial included a kid named “Lindsay” who was accused of another child of being a “milkaholic.”Coincidence you say?

Not so fast, says T.A.H. Pop Culture Editor Young A.T and bad-girl actress Lindsay Lohan.Remarkably, Lohan has actually proved to be stupid enough to embarrass herself (again) by launching an effort to sue the company for $100 million thus giving the Internet traders more exposure than money could ever buy. Young A.T. asserts the company made the vague, and legal, reference to titillate a portion of the pop culture market.

Lohan alleged that the online brokerage's use of the girl, also named Lindsay, in the ad improperly invoked her "likeness, name, characterization, and personality" without permission, violating her right of privacy.

Nice, Lindsay, NICE!

It’s not often that a segment on the Today show makes you laugh out loud on purpose, but this one does.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Maryland guard Greivis Vasquez, whose all-around game has lifted Maryland into the national rankings and a share of the ACC's regular-season title in 2010, has been named the league's Player of the Year in voting by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association.

Vasquez, a senior from Caracas, Venezuela, is the only player in ACC history with 2,000 or more points, 750 or more assists and 600 or more rebounds in a career. This season, he's the only Division I player averaging at least 19 points and six assists a game.

The 6-foot-5 guard was named on 39 of 53 ballots cast. Duke guard Jon “Crazy Face” Scheyer was second with 12 votes and Virginia Tech guard Malcolm Delaney received the other two.

"This means so much to me," Vasquez said. "After four years of working so hard, to be the ACC Player of the Year is unbelievable. I don't have enough words to express how happy I am for my teammates, my coaches and my whole country. People in Venezuela have been so supportive and making me a better player and a better person."

Vasquez entered his name into the NBA Draft in 2009 but rescinded his declaration and de-cided to return for his senior season. His efforts this season have included two games with 13 as-sists and a 41-point outburst in the Terrapins' critical double-overtime win at Virginia Tech on Feb. 27.

Vasquez becomes the first foreign-born player to win the ACC's top individual honor. (Wake Forest's Tim Duncan, who won the award in 1996 and '97, was born in Christiansted in the U.S. Virgin Islands and was therefore an American citizen at birth according to Title 8 of the U.S. Code.)

Vasquez is the sixth ACC Player of the Year in Terrapin history and the first since Juan Dixon in 2002.

WHERE IN THE WORLD...?

The way it is...

The way it was...

TAH DAMN GOOD CAUSE OF THE MONTH

NORTHERN HAITI HOPE FOUNDATION: After our recent trip to Haiti, we vowed to do more to help. Clean water is a critical issue for all Haitians. It's particularly problematic for those in rural areas. For $2,000 to $5,000 we can build a new well in a rural village as part of a program facilitated by the St. Barthelemy School and the Warrenton, VA Rotary. Send your donation to Wells of Health and Hope, c/o GPetty-VTA, 38 Garrett Street, Warrenton, VA 20186 and keep your eye on T.A.H. for progress reports. Thanks! CLICK ON THE PHOTO FOR MORE INFO.